


star charts

by sassycatpants



Series: Kingdom Turtles [1]
Category: Kingdom Hearts, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TV 2012)
Genre: Crossover, Donnie is The Hero, Gen, Pre-Kingdom Hearts I, i also kill like 3 characters within the first 500 words so that is a thing, post season 3 tmnt 2012
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-18
Updated: 2016-09-18
Packaged: 2018-08-15 16:50:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,649
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8064361
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sassycatpants/pseuds/sassycatpants
Summary: The sound of April and Casey’s sneakers pounding across the asphalt as the teenagers ran. Casey telling them to keep going as he stumbled over a discarded newspaper —

  April screamed.}
The night the Triceratons opened the Heart of Darkness, Donnie's world was lost and what was left of his family scattered across the worlds. But Donnie fixes things, that's what he does, and he's going to fix this -- he's going to find his brothers, no matter what it takes because they've always had his back and it's time for him to have theirs.Family doesn't get left behind, even when you're worlds apart.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This is unbeta'd, and all mistakes are definitely mine.
> 
> Timeline wise, this is approximately (give or take) a year pre-KH canon, so before Sora gets his keyblade and stuff, but post season 3 finale in TMNT 2012 series; which means that Triceratons did their thing in canon, except instead of black holes they opened a door to the Realm of Darkness and then suddenly the universe took a hard left and entered Kingdom Hearts universe and abandoned season 4 completely. No turtles in space, no weird time loop shenanigans, and no roboprofessors.
> 
> New characters will be added to tags as they arrive and are considered important, and relationships will update as required. (Also I'm still getting into the flow of writing again for anything that's not RP please excuse my shitty writing --)

Waking is an abrupt affair, jolting from unconsciousness into alertness without warning one second to the next as memories surge forth before he can stop them.

_{Shredder’s betrayal in the final seconds, Splinter splayed across the ground in a growing puddle of red —_

_The portal opening —_

_Darkness pouring out of the opening in the sky, strange shadows slithering from the darkness with long fingers groping for anything they could reach. The sound of April and Casey’s sneakers pounding across the asphalt as the teenagers ran. Casey telling them to **keep going** as he stumbled over a discarded newspaper —_

_April screamed when one of the shadows, black and shiny like oil-slick on pavement, plunged its fingers into Casey’s chest and ripped something small and glittering from inside; it had been Raph who’d swept her off her feet, throwing her onto his back as he kept moving — **“Don’t look, April!”** — as the shadows behind them continued to rip into everything they touched.}_

They’d lost April somewhere between the Heart of Darkness and the sewers they’d fled towards, Donnie remembers with a vague sort of disconnect. She’d lost her hold on Raphael when one of the shadows, chittering and screeching like nails on a chalkboard, had grabbed her ankle and given a yank. She'd been dragged off of his shell and down into the writhing mass below before any of them had realized it.

They’d gone back for her, but she’d already been lost in the swarm and the billowing darkness spreading out from the portal had forced them into a retreat before they could find her, none of them willing to voice her likely fate. He lies there a moment longer, registering dimly that he’s in a pile of broken crates, before finally he forces himself to his feet to figure out exactly where he is.

_{Screaming, the muted sound of panic in the streets above them, as they huddled together in the sewer. No idea what to do, no plans and no gadgets, nothing that Donnie could think of to get them out of this and even Leo wasn’t sure what to do anymore. An explosion above them —_

_Darkness, and then nothing. Just silence.}_

Donnie doesn’t recognize anything in the dimly lit alleyway he’s in, but he _knows_ this isn’t New York. Even without the city

(the whole damn _world_ )

being swallowed by darkness and vanishing as he was swept away, ripped away from his brothers, he can tell. The alley is just too _clean_ , none of the normal litter and dumpsters that pepper New York alleys; the only things in this particular alley are some crates — broken from where he’d landed on them, apparently — and a few bits of graffiti on the worn brick of the building he’s tucked behind. And it’s quiet, actual real quiet rather than the pseudo-silence of a New York evening. No traffic, no streetwalkers, no hum of ever present radios and tvs and _people_. Just the sound of his own breathing.

* * *

He lingers in the alley for a while, straining his ears for any sort of sound to indicate he might be seen if he leaves but eventually has to concede that he can't stay there forever, discovery or not. He needs to find his brothers

_(they're not dead, they're **not** )_

as soon as he can, try to figure out what they need to do next. Keeping to the shadows Donnie creeps to the mouth of the alley and finds himself only a few feet from a  _mutant;_ the startled noise is out of his mouth before he can stop it and the mutant --  _duck, it's a duck --_ turns to catch sight of him. The expression of surprise on its face is almost comical before it suddenly grins, throwing a hand in the air.

"Hey! Ya gonna sit in that alley all night?" the duck in the red shirt calls, and he looks around in alarm. Someone's going to  _see them_ if he doesn't keep it down --

"Who the heck ya talkin' to over there, Huey?" a gruff voice demands, and before Donnie can do anything a human has appeared beside the duck to catch sight of him. Instinctively the terrapin inches back into the shadows, trying to get out of sight and the small duck turns to the man beside him with a frown on his face.

"I think it's a turtle," he replies slowly, crossing his arms. "And I think it's new to Traverse Town. Ain't never seen 'im before, and you know we know  _everybody_." The man inclines his head at that, before he clearly comes to a decision and steps into the alley towards Donnie, who tenses immediately.

"Just lost your world, right?" the man asks lowly, shifting to sit on one of the few unbroken crates left in the alley. "Bet'cha lost and confused too, yeah? It's alright, happened to me too. Happened to everyone here in Traverse Town, really. World gets swallowed up by darkness, few survivin' folks end up here. All sorta folks, from all different worlds. We take care'a each other here, don't matter what you look like. So you don't gotta hide in this alley, kid. No one'll look twice at'cha once ya settle in."

Donnie doesn't want to believe it -- too many years of Sensei's warnings about humans and the surface world ingrained in his mind, but the echo of years old loss and resignation underlying the human's words are too close to the emotions running under his own skin right now that it's impossible not to hear the ring of truth in them. This human, at least, isn't afraid of him and isn't lying when he says the turtle is safe now.

(Or at least, he's what the man understands to be safe and if their definitions don't quite match it'll have to do for now.)

Despite the assurances he's still wary as he finally steps out of the alley and into the light of a flickering streetlamp, missing the familiar weight of his bo, lost somewhere along the way to here.

"I'm Huey!" the small duck exclaims brightly, holding out a hand to shake. "He's Cid. What's your name?"

"Donatello -- Donnie," the turtle answers eventually, shaking Huey's hand uncertainly.

“Nice to meet you Donnie.” Cid shifts the toothpick in the corner of his mouth to the other side and climbs back to his feet, gesturing for him and Huey to follow the man. HIs feet move on their own, following behind Cid on autopilot as he takes his first real look at this place they call  _Traverse Town_.

It's dark, and a little grimy but so much cleaner than the city he is used to, and so quiet. The few people actually out glance their way before going on their business without even blinking, and Donnie has to admit that Cid hadn't been lying when he said no one would look twice at a giant bipedal turtle. Some of them even called a quiet hello to Huey, who is chattering away to Donnie's left, though the turtle hasn't heard a word he'd said in the last five minutes. His heart aches at the reminder of his younger brother, but he stomps down hard on the feeling. No time for that yet, there'd be plenty later once he's found them.

The large doors they come to a stop at are scratched and worn, deep claw marks in some places and he looks curiously to his companions once it registers that they've stopped; Cid gives him a grim look before he can open his mouth to ask the question he wants to ask.

"This here's the door to the Second District. We're in the first right now, and the Third's beyond the Second. Unfortunately Heartless --"

"Heartless?"

"Them shadows that probably showed up when your world fell? Those are Heartless. They're here on this world too, but they don't come into First District. Don't know why, but as long as this door stays closed, they don't come through. We keep it closed at all times, understand? You're welcome to go between Districts whenever you want, but you  _have to close the door_ when you pass, Donnie. Don't ever forget that. Most people live here on this side, but a few'a us live on that side of the door. That's where we're going right now, to the Hotel. Know some people who can help ya out." Cid leans forward, pushing the great doors aside, and Donnie gets his first look at the District beyond; it's even more gloomy than the one they're standing in, and as he follows the other two through, he feels Huey's fingers locking around his belt.

They're trembling slightly.

The door closes with an almost inaudible  _thunk_ and Cid's striding forward again, pace quick -- almost urgent -- and Donnie hastens to keep up with him, Huey nearly running to match their pace with his much smaller size. The next door they reach is much more normal sized, and in even worse condition than the one they'd just left, some claw marks scored so deep into the wood that they've almost gone through entirely.

"Heartless," Huey whispers quietly when he sees Donnie's expression at the sight of the door. "We can fight them, but they don't  _die_. We don't have the right weapons for it. Sometimes people get taken, even here. They survive the fall of their world and end up here in this between place where it's supposed to be safe and then they  _die anyway_ because they're _here_ too."

Donnie doesn't really understand what Heartless  _are_ but his mind conjures up memories of shadows with long fingers and small glittering objects being swallowed as people scream, a half-missed flash of light and suddenly one more writhing shadow where there used to be a human body joining the mass of squirming bodies and he doesn't ask.

For once, he doesn't _want_ to understand.

**Author's Note:**

> The original idea behind this was honestly 'Donnie getting a keyblade and then obsessing over how the god damn thing works to distract himself from the slow creeping panic that his brothers are probably dead' and it kinda evolved.
> 
> Also friends say I'm banned from writing anymore KH/TMNT fanfic bc I killed 3 people within 400 words of starting this one so. Haha.


End file.
